Rock ‘n roll and experimental film were on parallel groundbreaking paths from the late ‘60s to the early ‘70s, fueled by all of the ecstasy and anger of a vibrant and explosive California counterculture never to be replicated. The instances at which these aural and visual courses intersected is the departure point for tonight’s program, which we hope proves once and for all that in that era, cinema’s influence on music (and vice-versa) was on par with the holy pairing of sex and drugs. This show’s line-up — a reverent glimpse at the early stages of the symbiotic melding of two mediums — places loopy Zappa fare alongside Christina Hornisher’s structuralist speculations, and George Lucas’ prescient early work beside Chris Langdon’s pared-down homage to ‘60s singer-songwriter Lou Christie. Come witness the synesthetically powerful results of a compact cultural Big Bang.

Perhaps the first film to combine classical dance with
dancing of “the street.”

"dancers in white face groove out in photomontage on
a black backdrop to the music of Jimi Hendrix…” – from "Paper Monument: A
Journal of Contemporary Art," review by Naomi Fry of the exhibition "Semina
Culture: Wallace Berman & His
Circle" at NYU